Chikorita157's Anime Blog

What to expect in Key's new Anime Project, Angel Beats!

December 4, 2009 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

Having discovered the greener side of Anime and also Visual Novels of Key/VisualArts with my first encounter with Kanon remake by Kyoto Animation and soon after, the epicly long Bishoujo visual novel, Clannad, which was completely clean that I played for several hours (think of the Tetris Effect, I was so addicted to it.) Eventually, it led me to watch the whole Clannad Anime, no wonder I got hooked on them… The stories are beautiful with cute, beautiful girls filled with so much moe (more so with Kanon with all those verbal tics/catchphrases) and also great music that I keep coming back for more… That is pretty much why I played the original Kanon visual novel and finished Nayuki’s, Mai’s and Shiori’s arc within a few weeks or days in July… Not only that, but I picked up and started the Air anime, which I haven’t finished yet… I’m that dedicated.

As you remember a few months back, Key have announced a new project called Angel Beats! with the collaboration of Dengeki (if you don’t know, it’s a magazine mostly on Bishoujo games and related manga and light novel. Something that Ken will go crazy for.) Knowing their track record with Air, Kanon and Clannad, I have high expectations with this original work and it seems like it’s some parody anime since the main character oddly resembles Haruhi… but then again, it’s Key and they will probably slip in tearjerking moments underneath the comedy… which make us shred manly tears (or girly tears.)

What do we know so far… well, P.A.Works will be animating this. If you don’t know it by now, they recently made Canaan which was aired this summer and also True Tears, based off a visual novel… and Jun Maeda is back and character designs are being done by Na-Ga so you shouldn’t expect too much disappointed there. The question is, will they pull it off? Who knows… but I know one thing… It’s not going to be a total disaster like Endless Eight and Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season… now thinking about it gives me second thoughts about Haruhi’s future… Then again, Angel Beats may as well end up as being another Little Busters since that had fighting scenes, right?

Meantime, you can learn more about it at ASuki if you feel like getting the latest information. Anime releases next year in Spring 2010 and have 13 episodes. Can’t wait… and I seriously hope there is no Hirano Aya in it.

Category: Angel Beats!, EditorialsTag: editorial, key, P.A.Works, speculation

Seitokai no Ichizon – Episode 9 Thoughts and Impressions

December 3, 2009 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Episode 9 is a mix of serious and funny moments and focusing more on Chizuru.
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Category: Seitokai no IchizonTag: comedy, drama, moe, Studio DEEN

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Second Season – Episode 9 Thoughts and Impressions

December 2, 2009 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Wait... Haven't we gone on a date before?

Haruka asks Yuuto on a official date after 20 EPISODES?! What do you mean? Are those dates on Akiba, the Christmas party at Yuuto’s house and the place where Haruka’s mother and father went to on New Years Day, are those dates… Not according to Mika since she considers them only to be outings…. ouch… I thought by now that they would have gone out on a date…

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Category: Nogizaka Haruka no HimitsuTag: comedy, Diomedea, moe

Kobato – Episode 7 Thoughts and Impressions

December 1, 2009 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

Sorry for the delay… but you can never be late for Kobato, can you?

Continuing Kobato’s quest of getting more konpeito, she finds out from being a dojikko with the paint and spilling the paint all over the place that she got Fujimoto angry again… Fujimoto always seems to be one of those characters that get mad easily and Kobato takes it the wrong way when she calls him mean for not helping the girls at the university. Whoops!

The highlight of this episode: Kobato shoves his paper to his chest.

Why in the world sould Fujimoto bail out irresponsible college students that go off and party and not do their homework or take notes? I wouldn’t and he is right… but it seems that Kobato takes it the wrong way and saying it’s right for people to copy your work so they can get a better grade… What ever happened to Academic Integrity? Hell, my university won’t allow me to get bailed out for being absent most of the time… No way jose… You earn your grade… so remember college students or students that will enter college next year, YOU have to earn your grade and no one is going to BAIL you OUT or you might get caught cheating! It’s not fair when students get bailed out when I have to work my butt off to get the best grade, but it happens… However, Domoto, the nice guy he his (way too nice than Yuuto from Nogizaka Haruka) and let others take advantage of him and Kobato okays that…. Wow… that is messed up, but it’s better than having a jerkass like Shute Shutherland…

On a side note, the robots from Chobits makes a reappearance since Episode 3. The funny thing is when the children play hide and go seek with them… one girl don’t know which one and as a result, she got found. =O

Besides the pet peeves with someone actually bailing out students and Kobato saying that it’s okay to do so, I find the episode rather funny… and cute… Kobato may as well be the biggest dojikko out there… more so than Yui from K-ON!

This reminds me of something… I have finals coming up in a few weeks. =o

Verdict

8.7/10

Category: KobatoTag: clamp, comedy, drama, Madhouse Studios, moe

Otaku Elimination Game does show what’s wrong with the Anime Blogosphere

December 1, 2009 by Chikorita157

After the overwhelming response I had with the previous editorial I wrote on how the Anime Blogosphere is filled with posts that are not even closely related to Anime and filled with boring rehash of mostly news and photoshots of figurines, no wonder AnimeNano are filled with not so interesting or good quality posts. I decided to write a second part of the editorial… How OEG shows what’s wrong with the Anime Blogosphere.

When the Otaku Elimination Game post it’s first review of select blogs, people have shun it outright for being a troll blog, but they do bring a point…. Anime blogs are becoming less about Anime and more about pointless stuff like random Japan news, photo shots of figurines and how much RAM you use on your computer, etc… It eeems that these days, Anime Blogs are becoming way too personal and people are beginning to post personal experiences too much compared to the ratio of actual anime/manga reviews and anime/manga related editorials and commentaries. Sure it’s okay to add your own thoughts to news, but the problem is that news even though you add thoughts to your news can outrun your anime content.

The problem is that the Anime Blogosphere is filled with alot of not so good blogs, believe it or not… Sturgeon’s Law is alive… and 90% of the blogs you see on AnimeNano and in the Anime Blogosphere is crud … and most of these blogs die after a few months and never become active again… The problem is that fansubs have gotten so easy to obtain that bloggers want in and we see more quantity over quality. We seem to forgot that years ago when Anime Blogs are less about what it is today and more like spoilers… The problem is that people seem to not put enough effort in their Anime Blogs, which can we see from the overwhelming majority of not so good blogs on Wordpress.com, and most of these bloggers complain they don’t have enough time and end up not updating. We see way too many copycats of successful anime blogs like That Anime Blog, Random Curiosity, or even Danny Choo that Anime Blogs seem to have no uniqueness, which the OEG seems to be stressing greatly… Bloggers should be more creative and make their blogs more unique… perhaps making your own format and even doing something more creative… Innovation isn’t the problem, but quality of content and the number of copycat blogs out there…

Lastly, AnimeNano seems to be less about Anime and Manga, but more on pointless and uninteresting things about Japan and Anime/Manga/Visual Novel/Light Novel unrelated stuff. As pointed out, AnimeNano atleast doesn’t have Sankaku, but it still doesn’t make it any better because there is still blogs like Sankaku out there that doesn’t even talk about the stuff I mentioned… Anime Nano seriously need some kind of feature that allow you to flag that kind of content so that it won’t pollute AnimeNano… (No offense to anyone who operate that type of blog) or a better way, have a option to view Anime/Manga/Visual Novel/etc related stuff in one feed and another feed with Japan stuff, video games, etc.

The OEG should make people want to improve their blogs, not go in the corner and fear about their blogs being attacked and not doing something about it… Also, Bloggers should blog more, emphasizing on quality posts and make their blogs more unique from other blogs.

Note: I’m not against any kind of censorship whatsoever. I’m hoping I’m not beating a dead horse over this… but this will be the last post on this matter.

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, fandom, response

Editorial: What ever happen to innovation in the AniBlogosphere?

November 30, 2009 by Chikorita157 17 Comments

My view of the Anime Blogosphere in General...

The OEG attempted to jumpstart the half-dead blogosphere, but it seems to only cause people to question them or even outright show themselves as internet trolls by other bloggers and one blogger did their work for them already. The problem is that the Aniblogosphere in my view is alot less on Anime and Manga or anything exciting and more about just news on Japan, which we can get from ANN or even Danny Choo. We don’t need the same post on Final Fantasy XIII elixir… It’s already covered nor we need to know about random Japanese news or happenings… It’s been done by so many blogs that it’s not funny anymore… just look at the few posts I found on AnimeNano…

The same, old... news. Nothing interesting about it. — The same... old... news. There's nothing interesting about it.

Posting news is pretty generic and not exciting in my opinion nor it will help solve the ever troubling problem of the half-dead Anime Blogosphere. Bloggers should not only review Anime, Manga or even anything related to it, they should drive innovation and do something that haven’t done like a project or something that will interests the readers such as sharing your thoughts about other things like visual novels or making commentaries on characters or anime you have interest in or do something creative besides posting news… That’s Anime News Network’s job, not yours. I highly doubt you will get a lot of viewers that way… It’s not wrong or anything, but bloggers should tone it down a bit and start doing something innovative besides copying like Microsoft copying ideas from Mac OS X and KDE/Linux/whatever for example. That way, bloggers can be more happier that the Anime Blogosphere isn’t half-dead anymore.

Remember, it’s you that can reignite the Anime Blogosphere by innovating… It’s not my job to push you to innovate, it’s yours. Otherwise, it will stay like that if nothing is done and most wouldn’t like a half-dead Anime Blogosphere, would you?

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, fandom, opinion, rant

Hayate no Gotoku – First Impressions

November 28, 2009 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

What sorta interests me about this anime is pretty much the third episode of Nogizaka Haruka Purezza, although the parody of a episode is similar to Hayate no Gotoku, but the original always a bit better. Touka and Nagi, ironically is voiced by the supposed by the Queen of Tsundere, Kugimiya Rie, the voice of other famous loli-tsundere characters like Shana, Louise and Taiga.

From watching the first five episodes of Hayate no Gotoku, it was pretty entertaining comedy. Hayate, a unlucky, ordinary sixteen year old boy is forced to work since eight years old since his irresponsible parents and he ended up getting fired because of his age. Knowing that his parents sold him to some “very nice people” (actually a Yakuza, Japanese mafia) and he runs away. He ends up in the park and sees a little girl and then confess to her with his intentions to kidnap her, but that girl actually took the confession seriously. He tried his plan, but failed and collapses. A woman gives him a scarf and he wakes up. He finds out that Nagi was kidnapped, so he took the woman’s bike and cases after the kidnappers and eventually saves Nagi, but he was injured and he was treated at Nagi’s mansion where his wish comes true, he gets a job as Nagi’s butler. He becomes officially a butler after proving himself by defeating the robot, although he ended up getting electrocuted and having to be treated again.

The episodes were pretty funny and had several references to other anime and also a complete parody of the typical action shouen anime, although there isn’t really much action to be seen and it’s mainly for comedy purpose. Oddly enough, although Hayate is pretty strong, his appearance looks vastly young and rather effeminate, a main reason why Nagi and Maria would eventually dress him in feminine clothing… (haven’t got there, but it would be pretty funny.) Like always, Nagi is a uber tsundere paired with her twin tails… more so since she is voiced by the tsundere queen. The animation was good, so I have no complaints about it…

Would I continue…. Yes, I probably would, but I would get the DVDs first before continuing, but would I blog it… Not so much since the number of episodes are pretty big (52 episodes) and it would take alot of work to blog it.

Category: Hayate no GotokuTag: comedy, first impressions, JC Staff, moe

Seitokai no Ichizon – Episode 8 Thoughts and Impressions

November 27, 2009 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

Episode 8 was even funnier than the last… and Ken seems to become even more indecisive than ever and Elise-chan, Lilicia’s younger sister, which was sent for her evil scheme of writing libel about the student council, but it sorta backfired.
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Category: Seitokai no IchizonTag: comedy, moe, Studio DEEN

Some things before Thanksgiving

November 25, 2009 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so I won’t likely make any updates on this blog, but before I leave for a day, I will make the following updates reguarding the Karaoke Contest and also MAL Client OS X and MAL Lite:

Karaoke Contest

I have made a change earlier that no effects or any alterations of the recording may be used. You may only use effects to reduce any grainy/background noise, but anything but that may not be used. I will be posting further details after I come back from Thanksgiving and hopefully start it on Monday.

MAL Client OS X and MAL Lite

I have made several changes to the MAL updating program for Mac OS X and also the lightweight, minimalist solution on Windows and Linux. MAL Client OS X 0.3.6 now features a new interface similar to the one on Finder. If used on Tiger and Panther, the interface will default to a sheet metal feel. Manga list lookup is added, but when you double click on a item, you can view the information about it on the browser. No manga updating is added yet since there isn’t enough API to implement it yet. Lastly, Melative updating can be done without updating your MAL status. You can make a update by going to the anime information window and clicking “Post Melative Update” on the toolbar.

I apologize that I can’t get the help updated and the Sparkle appcast updated since the FTP is down. Once it comes up, I will post the Sparkle update. For now, you need to download the disk image.

Download MAL Client OS X 0.3.6

For MAL Lite 1.1.2, I restored the full list featured on MAL Client OS X and added a tray icon. Download 1.1.2

I hope you a nice and joyful Thanksgiving… I will resume blogging on Friday after shopping on Black Friday and hopefully cover Kobato Episode 7 and Seitokai no Ichizon Episode 8.

Category: MAL Client OS X, UncategorizedTag: updates

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Second Season – Episode 8 Impressions

November 25, 2009 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Oh no... more girls in Yuuto's "Unwanted Harem?"

This time it’s a Mika centered episode and yes, it’s the last of the episodes that don’t focus on Haruka and her secret (which so far about 4 episodes in the season don’t have her in the spotlight, which some of the complaints are coming from.)
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Category: Nogizaka Haruka no HimitsuTag: comedy, Diomedea, moe

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